SBS received tenant verification fee amounting to Rs. 35 lakh from 30,000 applicants

PANKAJ DHUNGEL

GANGTOK,: State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) has issued over 30,000 bank receipts from applicants to pay as tenant verification fee since the drive was initiated from February 1.

The 30,000 bank receipts amount to over Rs. 35 lakhs at the rate of Rs. 50 to Rs. 150 per person, depending on his domicile status. The deposits were directed to the Sikkim Police who have been carrying out tenant verification drive.

On February 11, local citizens with documents such as Sikkim Subject certificate, Certificate of Identification, Voter ID Card of Sikkim constituency, Residential Certificates and land documents in Sikkim were exempted from tenant and domestic verification drive.

Now the question arises, will the State government refund the verification fee paid by citizens with the above five documents?

SBS managing director PW Bhutia stated, “For those individuals who fall in the category with the five documents and have already paid the tenant verification fee, the State government will have to take a decision if they must refund.  As far as bank is concerned, we receive the fees and have already credited the same in the government’s account. Now we cannot cancel the bank receipt nor can we debit the government’s account. The prerogative lies with Finance department, they will soon be taking a call”.

The SBS managing director informed that of the 30,000 bank receipts or 30,000 people who have paid the tenant verification fees, “it would be difficult to differentiate between locals who have now been exempted from the non-locals who are to pay the tenant verification fee.” The concerned department will have to check and verify, he said.

Non-locals staying or working in Sikkim have to undertake the police verification drive after paying the fee through the SBS bank receipts. People are still thronging the SBS outlets to get the bank receipts.

The SBS had to work overtime in many branches due to the massive crowd for tenant verification initially, stalling other bank functions.

“From today we have also initiated online bank receipt system for tenant verification, they can submit the fees through State Bank of Sikkim website and they can deposit it online. They can get the bank receipts printed and take to the nearest police station”, informed the SBS managing director.